Cairo – The Egyptian minister of Petroleum, Sameh Fahmi, announced, in a meeting held this Thursday (30th) in Cairo with the president of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, Salim Taufic Schahin, and the secretary general of the organisation, Michel Alaby, that he wants to return to Brazil this year. The trip will probably take place in July or August. The minister visited the country in November 2008.
Fahmi showed enthusiasm for the idea of establishing partnerships with Brazil in the gas and petroleum exploration field. "[The Brazilian state-owned oil company] Petrobras is a widely known and respected company worldwide and here in Egypt. Their technology is very advanced and matches our production needs. The company has been drilling for oil in deep waters in Brazil, therefore we would like to use their experience in order to explore gas and oil in the Mediterranean Sea," he declared.
"Personally, I would like to have one first successful experience with Brazil, one that could boost our work and cooperation in the field of gas and oil exploration," claimed Fahmi, who added that he is very optimistic regarding the perspective of working more along with Brazil in this area. "We are open to whatever proposition or initiative that may come from Brazil," he said. "As a matter of fact, many of the drills that we are using right now come directly from Brazil," he underscored.
The Egyptian minister called attention to the need for consolidating a larger investment volume in the gas and oil exploration sector, due to the imminent rise in global demand. "If investment in the sector does not grow, we are in danger of seeing excessive price increases," he stated.
The president of the Arab Brazilian Chamber, in turn, displayed receptiveness to all of minister Fahmi’s ideas, placed the Chamber’s infrastructure at his disposal so as to make his work with Brazil easier, and to put him in touch with the Brazilian petroleum industry.
Development policies
Thursday was also the second and last day of the 40th Conference of Arab Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture. According to the participants, in this time of international crisis, Arab countries should maintain policies turned to economic and social development.
Within this context, the private sector should play a key role. The main task of the public sector, in turn, should be to create favourable conditions for the adequate development of the private sector. "One of the main challenges currently facing the Arab world is job generation. In order to address this issue, what the entrepreneurial sector is expecting right now is for governments to privatise several companies and set policies for industry and agriculture," said the secretary general of the Arab Brazilian Chamber, Michel Alaby.
In his assessment of the event, he underscored the need for exploring complementary aspects of Arab countries. "This will only occur when the different levels of development and peculiarities of each country are taken into consideration and diagnosed," stated Alaby.
According to the secretary general, that does not preclude the notion that the creation of the Arab Free Trade Area remains as the priority for the region, the step to be taken so that economic development may be attained and preserved.
*Translated by Gabriel Blum
